Good god, yank that shit outta there and get it set up right before you get killed! Keep after it, Good luck!
lol thats what i thought when i saw it. its a good thing it never was driven but a few miles at a time
Looks like a 57 - 64 Chevy. 55 & 56's are basically the same, but I don't think those housings had drain plugs.
That first picture looks like it had a drain that someone welded up in the back of it. The photos are weird, from the rear it looks like the rear is sitting at a 45degree angle or so but the front makes the pinion look almost straight on. Start pulling that body off and post some photos of the chassis without the body, looks like some farm engineering went a little to far into that thing. The bailin wire exhaust hanger may be the higher end of engineering in the rear of that car.
i agree about the engineering. i always hated the way dad did some things, cant really say the words lol. i,on the other hand am really anal about how i do my metal work and fabrication. i intend to pull the body off soon as i build a dolly to put it on. i dont have the room and will take the body back to his house along with the front fenders and radiator. all i gotta do is cut everything out of there and start fresh.
Nice start to your project... Now, since you are familiar with Camaro's and such, you understand that the ride on a first gen is nowhere near what the ride in a 4th gen is. Sure, you can make the 1st gen handle like the new one but you have now lost the soul of the car and one of its many characteristics... Same rules apply to this car. I was fortunate enough to save my Chevy coupe from a streetrodder before he put a MII in it. These cars are defined by their style and ride quality(or lack thereof). You can make them ride better and as mentioned tune the suspension with your choice of spring & shocks but they will never ride like a new 2010 car.
when we were bringing it home i had a friend drive the truck and i followed behind. while i was behind it i could see the original suspension under it and knew that i was gonna stay with the staright axle set up. i dunno it just looked cool so thats what im gonna do. keep the front original but replace the rear end with a 9 inchand get it all squared away. ill have it tore down in a few days.
ok got more pics comin later but have a question about the front suspension. i want to keep the original front axle and rebuild everything. one of the wishbones is bent some and i was wondering if it would be best to rebuild with radius rods or some type of 4 bar kit?
I agree the first thing i wood do is get rid of rear fenders. If you get a V8 Mavarck 8in rear axle it is the right width. I built a frame for a friends 32. We put this rear axel with a set of parallel leaf springs on it. This rear axle is the right width. You can get this in 279,300,325,. We run the 279in his 32 also i have this setup in 40 also. I think that it is a 65-68. The 6cyl. had 4 bolt pattern then the 8cyl cars were 5 bolt. My friend loves to drive his 32 with the parallel leaf srings. I have had this same set up in my 40 Coupe for 26yrs. 40BCOOL
looks traditional to me! Its tough to imagine there were alot of cars on the road like that from the 50's thru the 70's. alot of back yard engineering and junk yard parts.